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E  UNCHANGING  LAW 

SHEARITH  ISRAEL'S  HERITAGE  AND  HOPE 


Sermon  preached  in  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  Synagogue  Shearith  Israel, 
Central  Park  West  and  Seventieth  Street, 
New  York  City,  on  Sabbath  Shuba, 
Tishri  3,  5877,  September  30,  1916. 


By 


The  REV.  D.  DE  SOLA  POOL,  PH.  D. 


Printed  by  Request. 


2096429 


SHEARITH  ISRAEL'S  HERITAGE  AND  HOPE 

"And  Moses  said  unto  all  Israel,  set  your  heart  to  all  the  words 
which  I  testify  against  you  this  day,  that  ye  may  command  them  to  your 
children  to  observe  and  to  do  all  the  words  of  this  Law.  For  it  is  not 
a  thing  too  insignificant  for  you,  but  it  is  your  life  and  through  this 
thing  you  shall  prolong  your  days  in  the  land." 

—Deuteronomy  XXXII,  46,  47. 


To  the  non-Jew,  the  phenomenon  of  our  survival  as  a  nation 
in  face  of  the  fall  and  disappearance  of  great  empires  and  powerful 
states,  is  an  inexplicable  riddle.  It  appears  to  him  a  miracle  that 
the  weak  and  defenseless  Jew  has  persisted  through  the  home- 
lessness,  the  rightlessness,  the  hatred,  the  persecution  and  the 
unrelenting  inhumanity  of  humanity  which  have  been  his  lot  for 
two  thousand  years. 

But  we  who  live  the  Jewish  life  see  no  miracle  in  our  survival. 
We  know  that  our  survival  is  the  necessary  outcome  of  our  Law. 
The  real  miracle  is  this  instrument  of  our  persistence  —  the  Law. 
Truly  marvelous  is  the  preservative  and  life-giving  power  of  the 
God-given  Torah,  the  Law  which  Moses  taught  us  and  which  in  his 
farewell  message  he  solemnly  impressed  upon  us  as  our  life  and 
the  length  of  our  days. 

Can  this  claim,  that  the  Law  is  the  cause  of  our  persistence 
as  a  people,  be  substantiated  ?  It  is  one  of  our  privileges,  living  as 
we  do  in  these  latter  days,  that  we  may  measure  the  claims  made  by 
the  Bible  for  the  Law  against  the  actual  effects  of  the  Law  as  seen 
in  Jewish  life.  The  stark  facts  of  Jewish  life  and  the  plain 
teachings  of  Jewish  history  are  the  assays  with  which  we  are  able 
to  test  the  pragmatic  validity  of  the  Law.  Moses  himself  in  today's 
Parasha  bade  us  apply  this  test  in  order  to  obtain  a  true  under- 
standing of  the  underlying  providence  in  history.  "Call  to  mind 
the  days  of  old,  firan  the  years  of  successive  generations.  Ask  thy 
father,  and  he  will  recount  to  thee,  thine  elders,  and  they  will  tell 
thee."®  When  in  dispassionate  weighing  of  empirical  facts  we 
judge  the  Law  by  this  standard  of  its  practical  results,  as  attested 
by  history,  the  claims  made  for  the  Jewish  Law  by  Moses  and  other 
Biblical  teachers  are  brilliantly  vindicated.  Indeed,  not  only  does 
the  Law  prove  to  be  an  unequalled  force  for  good  in  character 
building,  safeguarding  morality  and  ensuring  individual  and  social 
happiness,  but  it  proves  to  be  essential  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Jewish  people. 


No  fact  emerges  more  clearly  from  our  history  than  this  —  that 
observance  of  the  Law,  and  this  alone,  has  preserved  us  as  Jews, 
while  disregard  of  the  Law  has  rapidly  induced  the  Jewish  ruin 
of  those  who  neglected  it.  Whenever  we  Jews  have  unbuckled  the 
defensive  armor  of  our  Sabbath  which  differentiates  us  from  our 
neighbors;  whenever  we  have  disregarded  our  own  festivals,  fasts 
and  holydays,  the  dietary  laws  and  the  other  distinctive  ceremonies 
and  rites  which  ensure  our  separatism  and  preserve  our  Jewish 
individuality,  the  giving  up  of  these  time-tested  and  time-hallowed 
defenses  has  meant  our  Jewish  surrender  to  the  forces  of  oblitera- 
tion. These  are  unassailable  historical  facts. 

Let  others,  therefore,  talk  in  general  terms  of  the  need  of 
modifying  the  law.  They  may  voice  theoretic  claims  of  the  necessity 
for  progressing  with  the  times.  They  may  assert  the  putative  need 
of  modernizing  and  re-interpreting  the  Law.  We  serenely  point 
to  the  relentless  logic  of  history  and  show  how  observance'  of  the 
traditional  Law  has  been  our  life  and  the  length  of  our  days.  We 
show  how  adherence  to  the  Law  has  linked  father  and'  son,  from 
generation  to  generation,  in  an  unbroken  chain  of  tradition.  The 
voice  of  history  tells  us  that  when  the  Law  of  Jewish  life  has  been 
broken  or  reformed  away,  groups  and  sects  have  formed  themselves, 
and  these  sectarian  groups,  through  growing  divergence  from  the 
Jewish  Law  and  growing  conformity  to  the  standards  of  non-Jewish 
neighbors,  finally  drifted  out  of  Judaism. 

Reform  of  Judaism,  being  essentially  an  assimilation  or 
adaptation  of  Judaism  to  the  standards  of  the  non-Jewish  environ- 
ment, has  always  been  and  must  always  be  progressive.  Tampering 
with  the  Law  is  a  process  that  once  begun  cannot,  be  checked.  It 
is  the  taking  away  of  a  brick  here  and  a  brick  there,  so  that  the 
weakening  wall  bulges  under  its  weight  more  and  more  from  the 
true  until  at  last  it  crashes  down  in  ruins.®  Of  what  avail  for 
defense  is  a  wall  that  is  breached?  "He  who  breaks  down  a  wall, 
a  snake  shall  bite  him,"  says  the  Preacher.®  "He  who  makes  a 
breach  in  the  hedge  of  the  Law,"  say  the  Rabbis,  "gives  entry  to 
the  insidious  influences  of  destruction."® 

Let  us  test  this  general  affirmation  by  specific  facts  of  recent 
history  known  to  all  of  us.  It  is  an  illuminating  historical  truth 
that,  with  the  exception  of  this  congregation,  which  is  two  hundred 
and  sixty  years  old,  and  our  sister  Sephardic  congregation  in 
Philadelphia,  which  is  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  years  old, 
there  is  no  Jewish  congregation  in  the  United  States  more  than 
fifty  or  sixty  years  old  which  has  not  given  way  to  the  progressive 
influences  of  reform.  These  two  are  the  only  old  congregations  in 
which  the  congregant  knows  at  all  times  where  he  stands  and  in 


which  he  can  be  sure  that  the  Judaism  of  today  is  the  Judaism  of 
yesterday  and  the  Judaism  of  tomorrow.  Every  other  old  congrega- 
tion has  drifted  from  the  moorings  of  the  Law  and  has  re-inter- 
preted Judaism  to  suit  both  the  advancing1  whims  of  its  successive 
ministers,  and  the  insistent  demands  for  an  easier  religion  made 
by  congregations  "who  have  not  been  willing  to  listen  to  the  Law 
of  God,  who  have  said  to  the  seers  'See  not,'  and  to  those  who  have 
visions,  'Give  us  no  vision  of  the  right.  Speak  to  us  easy  words; 
see  visions  of  pleasant  illusions.'  "® 

Therefore,  when  the  voice  of  criticism  is  raised  and  we  are  told 
of  the  supposititious  need  of  reform,  we  in  this  synagogue  do  not 
even  discuss  these  theoretic  claims.  We  point  to  facts.  We  call 
attention  to  our  stability  and  abiding  continuity.  We  are  content 
to  stand  the  contrast  with  the  fitful  instability,  capricious  vagaries 
and,  above  all,  the  sterility  of  congregations  which  have  gone  from 
one  reform  to  another.  Liberal  Jewish  congregations  may  have 
a  seemingly  prosperous  present ;  but  they  have  cut  themselves  off 
from  the  past  and  have  cut  off  from  themselves  the  future.  We, 
respecting  the  past  and  the  future,  give  acquiescent  recognition  to  the 
warning  of  the  Sage  "Remove  not  the  ancient  landmark  which  thy 
fathers  set  up."®  Yea,  we  "hearken  to  our  father  who  begat  us 
and  do  not  despise  our  mother  when  she  is  grown  old."® 

Today  ten  years  ago  I  first  entered  this  pulpit.  I  spoke  then 
on  the  text  that  I  have  again  chosen:  "For  the  Law  is  your  life 
and  through  it  shall  ye  prolong  your  days."  Then  I  advocated 
traditional  Judaism  because  I  had  been  so  trained,  and,  perhaps, 
because  I  had  not  seen  reform  Judaism.  Now  I  advocate  traditional 
Judaism  because  I  have  seen  reform  Judaism  and  have  appraised  its 
inherent  failure.  These  ten  years  of  work,  experience,  study, 
thought  and  prayer  have  been  for  me  years  of  growing  clarification 
and  determination  of  religious  views.  Now  as  the  decennium  closes, 
I  embrace  this  opportunity  of  reaffirming  the  conviction  grown  far 
stronger  within  me  with  the  lapse  of  years  that  strict  and  faithful 
adherence  to  the  Law  spells  our  Jewish  life  and  the  length  of  our 
days.  As  a  Sheliach  Tsibbur,  minister,  servant,  mouthpiece  of  this 
congregation,  I  pledge  myself  anew,  and  the  congregation  which 
I  serve,  to  abiding  loyalty  to  the  Law  given  us  from  God  and 
expressed  through  the  hallowed  Judaism  of  our  ancestors.  Such 
individuality  as  the  ministers  of  this  congregation  may  possess 
must  be  exerted  in  other  directions  than  in  rewriting  the  prayer 
book,  annulling  the  Law  and  explaining  away  the  Bible. 


We  in  this  congregation  cannot  be  hypnotised  by  the  cry  of 
the  necessity  for  progressing  with  the  spirit  of  the  age ;  for  we 
know  that  the  dominant  life  in  the  lands  of  our  dispersion  is  un- 
Jewish,  and  we  refuse  to  endanger  our  traditional  Jewish  life  by 
transforming  it  in  response  to  every  novel  influence  from  without. 
We  remember  the  fable  told  by  Rabbi  Akiba  when  he  was  found 
publicly  studying  and  teaching  the  Law  in  defiance  of  the  prohibition 
of  the  Roman  government.  He  said:  "A  fox  was  once  walking 
by  ~<\  river  bank,  and  he  saw  the  fish  in  the  water  swimming  about 
in  great  agitation."  Spake  the  fox :  "From  what  are  you  trying 
to  escape  ?"  The  fish  answered :  "From  the  nets  of  fishermen." 
Then  counselled  the  fox,  "Come  on  to  the  dry  land  and  let  us  live 
together  in  peace."  But  the  fish  answered,  "O  fox,  called  the 
wisest  of  animals,  but  in  truth  the  most  foolish,  if  we  are  in  danger 
in  our  lifegiving  element,  how  much  the  more  danger  would  we  face 
in  the  element  that  means  our  death?"  "Even  so,"  said  Rabbi 
Akiba,  "if  observance  of  Judaism  is  difficult,  it  is  at  least  our 
natural  element  and  our  life,  as  it  is  written  "for  it  is  your  life 
and  the  length  of  your  days."®  How  much  better  off  are  we  with 
the  Law  and  its  difficulties  than  without  the  Law,  but  facing  certain 
destruction."® 

The  Law  is  our  life  and  the  length  of  our  days.  Loyalty 
unswerving  to  the  life  of  the  Law  and  the  Law  of  our  life  — 
that  shall  remain  the  tradition,  that  the  policy,  that  the  motto  of 
this  congregation.  "Set  your  hearts  to  all  the  words  which  I  testify 
against  you  this  day,  that  ye  may  command  them  to  your  children 
to  observe  and  to  do  all  the,  words  ol  this  Law.  For  it  is  not  a 
thing  too  insignificant  for  you,  but  it  is  your  life  and  through  this 
thing  you  shall  prolong  your  days  in  the  land." 


®  Deuteronomy  XXXII,  7. 
®  Isaiah  XXX,  13. 
®  Ecclesiastes  X,  8. 
®  Abodah  Sarah  27b. 
®  Isaiah  XXX,  9,  10. 

®  Proverbs  XXII,  28;  Sifri  to  Deuteronomy  XVII,  14,  with  the  revision 
of  Elijah  Gaon. 

®  Proverbs  XXIII,  22;  Mishna  Berachoth  IX,  5  and  Rashi  Berachoth  54a. 

Deuteronomy  XXX,  20. 
©  Berachoth  61b. 


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